A Month for Loki - an offering of hearts

Greetings, gentle readers. July is known as a month for Loki, because in the dog days of summer, Lokabrenna (Loki's Torch) rises. For those of you unfamiliar, Lokabrenna is another name for Sirius. Himself is active this time of year, and many Lokeans honor Him this month by posting poems, recipes, or other devotional works. I'm starting my month with a recipe for Him - a meal of hearts.

Loki's lore includes the eating of hearts. Here in the modern US, we don't do a lot of cooking with organ meats, but for seidhr I experimented with cooking chicken hearts, because it was what I could get my hands on locally. I offered Loki some, and He was positively FERAL and overjoyed to get them, because it is such a rare treat. So I'm gonna encourage y'all to try offering Him hearts, and since people usually don't know how to cook organ meats (I had to play Hail Lady Google), I will offer my own experience. I started with this recipe, because it involved grilling the hearts, and if you're familiar with Gullveig in the sagas. you know that He found her heart smoldering in embers and ate it, and barbecue is the closest that I can offer to that experience right now. If I ever get my lungs to a state where I can go camping and not have to worry about campfire smoke messing with them, I'd like to attempt cooking a larger heart for Him the way you do a baked potato, cooked straight on the coals, rubbed with butter and herbs, wrapped in tinfoil.

I did a very Florida marinate for the hearts, with white wine, fresh garlic, ginger, a little mojo, key lime juice, salt, and pepper. I let them soak overnight and then sauteed them for 5-7 min, just long enough to cook them a little and then put them on the grill. As the recipe notes, if you use wood skewers for this, soak them or they will burn while the hearts are cooking. If you don’t have access to a grill, you could cook them all the way through and then put them under the broiler to give them some char. I have a friend who suggests that you cut the tops of the hearts off, but it’s my experience with Himself that He loves the WHOLE THING. NOMNOMNOM. I gather the hearts are more tender if you cut off the top with the aorta and veins. I only ate one to share the experience with Him, because I’m not personally big into organ meats, but He LOVED it, and I think He appreciated the gesture of me trying something that He loves. I'm also a big believer in kitchen witching - the time, love, and intention that goes into preparing meals and offerings is valuable and magical, and can be used to weave intention through mindful work.

Lokean nun, writer, swamp witch. Heather is a Pagan monastic, writer, editor, and mother. She has written and edited for a variety of publications and social media, including science journals, romance novels, and technology blogs. She also holds degrees in education and speech-language pathology, and has a passion for historical linguistics.